Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Checking in from Mount Gambier

Screw you Vodaphone. I will be pressing you to get out of our contract with you upon our return. Your service on the Bellarine was barely usuable. It is better at home, but not so great really, as we went and bought a router to use our cable service on the laptop.

I really thought the service would be ok here in Mount Gambier. I checked the coverage map in advance, but again, barely usable.

Our digs give free wi-fi for two hours a day, and it is fast. But before going to the bother of that, I thought I would try using my phone as an internet access point, and hey, it works. It works fast. There was a warning about how it can chew through your data allowance and your phone battery, but it is negligiable compared to our allowance which we don't use. I have evened it out by using R's phone to connect with too.

For all R uses the net on his laptop at home, he could use his phone to connect with, never mind the router.

It pains me to say so, but so far our phones have had a first class signal and now a first class signal for the internet. Praise be to Telstra.

I was getting quite stressed earlier when trying to use the Vodafone connection. I could see things, try to do something, and it would not work. I am so relieved that I now have proper net access. There were over one hundred emails and a similar number of blogposts to catch up on, and it was impossible with the Vodaphone connection.

Almost from the day we bought a mouse for the laptop, we have had problems. I will be typing away and the cursor will jump and I am suddenly typing somewhere else on the page. We have never spilt anything on the keyboard, so I was not sure what was really wrong with the laptop that gets so little use.

Duh, I just worked it out. I rest the palms of my hand on the pad as I type, and that makes the cursor jump around. R has had the same problem. Now I have to keep my palms suspended and all works fine.

Holiday is going well, but why did we not head overseas or north for warmer weather? This time tomorrow we will be in warm Adelaide anyway, so no matter. (extract tongue from cheek)

13 comments:

Hello Andrew:Oh, the trials of technology. It is so irritating when things do not work or, even worse are intermittent. However, at last you have made contact with us all and we look forward to hearing holiday tales when you return. Take care and enjoy!

James, better than that, in Japan we just plugged the computer in at our hotel room and it worked and there was no limit and no charge.

Linda, all about the priorities hey.

LS, there should be a basic level of acceptable service and it seems Vodaphone cannot provide it.

Jayne, at our age we don't run amok. Main inter capital train line and no phone service. Bad.

We had one full day Victor and we certainly filled it. But after dinner, we are straight home and stay in for the evening.

We are indeed River. And what a gogeous welcome weather wise it was after days of grey skies. We were on the beach as the sun set, beautiful. Victor Harbour and Port Elliot is it, will be a day trip for us.

A Telstra Customer Service Manager (ie staff member) talked me into getting Telstra Mobile Broadband (ie running off the Next G mobile network) and an embedded laptop that works like a giant mobile phone! Apart from the odd customer 'service' issue, the actual access has been often better than I get at home, even in many more remote areas! My mobile, on the other hand, is Optus - outside major cities coverage is nada.

My public diary, not my private one. I live in a highrise apartment building in inner Melbourne. My interests are varied but top of the list are old buildings, history and public transport. You will find plenty of personal experiences to read in my blog too. Just be aware I am not an historian, amateur or otherwise. While I make some effort to be accurate, I don't do proper methodical research so I advise you check all details on your own behalf should you wish to quote me. Your comments are very welcome, but try to be nice to my fragile yet overblown ego. I enjoy receiving email. You can find my eddress in my complete profile.